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Laurier Brantford

Library external review underway

Communications, Public Affairs & Marketing

Mar 21/11

Wilfrid Laurier University will undertake an external review of its library system in 2011 with the goal of better understanding how our Library can continue to shift, within a multi-campus university, from a more traditional process-oriented role of providing access to scholarship, to an organization focused on engagement in teaching, learning and research, and in the development and use of scholarship in all its forms. Modeled after the successful Information & Communications Technology review undertaken by Laurier in 2009-2010, the review will identify the needs of all library stakeholders — students, faculty, staff, and the broader community on all campuses — and provide insight into how these needs can best be met within a vision of creating an integrated, multi-campus “library of the 21st century”.

An Advisory Team will be established to oversee the review process, working with peer reviewers and the consultants, and ensuring time lines are met. The Advisory Team will be chaired by Dr. Deb MacLatchy, Vice-President: Academic & Provost, with Dr. Lesley Cooper, Acting Vice-President/Principal Brantford Campus, as vice-chair, and with multi-campus membership drawn from university librarians, faculty, students, staff, administrators and alumni.

The initial portion of the review is a self-study, to be carried out by library personnel and including meetings with focus groups of librarians and library staff, faculty, students, staff and community stakeholders in Waterloo, Kitchener, Brantford and Toronto. A second part of the review will take the form of a three-person peer review team: Dr. Colleen Willard-Holt, Dean of Laurier’s Faculty of Education, will be joined by Mary Ann Mavrinac, University Librarian at University of Toronto at Mississauga, and Marnie Swanson, University Librarian at University of Victoria. The peer reviewers’ site visit will take place in mid-April. This group will assess the self-study documents and interview a selection of stakeholders on all campuses. Their report and recommendations concerning library operations and services is due by the end of June.

The final part of the review will include engagement of R2 Consulting, L.L.C. for a four-day, multi-campus site visit in mid-September. R2 Consulting is internationally recognized to be a leading expert on academic library workflow analysis, organizational design, and strategic planning. R2 will integrate reports from the self-study and the peer reviewers, consultation with the Advisory Team, and interviews/focus groups of their own, to make recommendations on implementation of best practices for library services at Wilfrid Laurier University. The final report, observations, recommendations and discussion with R2 of next steps will be completed by the end of October, 2011.

More information about the Laurier Library external review will be posted on the library web site as the review work progresses. Any questions about the review can be directed to Sharon Brown, University Librarian, at ext. 3380 or sbrown@wlu.ca.